Sisters in Death

The Black Dahlia, The Prairie Heiress, and Their Hunter

by Eli Frankel

Narrated by Eli Frankel

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Listen to an Audio Excerpt

Pub Date Oct 28 2025 | Archive Date Oct 28 2025

Tantor Media | Tantor Audio

History | True Crime

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Description

In January 1947, the body of Elizabeth Short, completely drained of blood, was discovered in an undeveloped lot in Los Angeles. Its gruesome mutilations led to a firestorm of publicity, city-wide panic, and an unprecedented number of investigative paths led by the LAPD—all dead ends. The Black Dahlia murder remained an unsolved mystery for over seventy years.

Six years earlier and sixteen hundred miles away, another woman's life ended in a similarly horrific manner. Leila Welsh was an ambitious, educated, popular, and socially connected beauty. Though raised modestly on a prairie farm, she was heiress to her Kansas City family's status and wealth. On a winter morning in 1941, Leila's butchered body was found in her bedroom bearing the marks of unspeakable trauma. One victim faded into obscurity. The other became notorious. Both had in common a killer whose sadistic mind was a labyrinth of dark secrets.

Eli Frankel reveals a key fact about the Black Dahlia crime scene that leads inexorably to the stunning identification of a criminal who was at the same time amateurish and fiendish, skilled and lucky, sophisticated and brutish. Drawing on documents, law enforcement files, interviews, the victims' own letters, trial transcripts, military records, and more, this true-crime saga puts together the missing pieces of a legendary puzzle.

In January 1947, the body of Elizabeth Short, completely drained of blood, was discovered in an undeveloped lot in Los Angeles. Its gruesome mutilations led to a firestorm of publicity, city-wide...

Advance Praise

“Frankel presents a thorough investigation of the Black Dahlia case, the murder of Elizabeth Short in L.A. in the early days of 1947. Considering police records, new evidence, personal letters, interviews with still-living witnesses, and descendants, he puts together a puzzle that leads back six years earlier to the murder of Leila Welsh in Kansas City in 1941. With a gripping, swiftly paced narrative and an excellent comparison of both cases, Sisters in Death is a welcome addition to the lore of the Black Dahlia that will appeal to true-crime aficionados.” —Booklist, STARRED Review

“Drawing on a trove of documents and interviews with the remaining principals, Frankel offers a new suspect (and a startling crime scene revelation) in a notorious cold case that’s attracted the attention of everyone from James Ellroy to Michael Connelly. Could this be the solution to one of history’s most notorious unsolved mysteries? Read it and decide for yourself.” —Criminal Element

“The gruesome murder of Elizabeth Short (1924–47) in Los Angeles in January 1947 sparked an intensive search. Despite the best efforts of the police, what came to be called the Black Dahlia case remains unsolved to this day. In his first book, true-crime researcher Frankel dives deep into Short’s murder. Following long-forgotten leads, he analyzes police files and archives and interviews with deceased participants’ descendants, one with the woman who discovered Short’s body. The name of a prime suspect emerged in both Short’s murder and one from six years earlier in another state. Raised on a small farm in Missouri, Leila Welsh was an attractive and popular young woman from a respectable family. In March 1941, Welsh was murdered in her sleep. Her brother was tried and acquitted in the slaying. Officially, the case remains open. Frankel lays out why he believes one man is responsible for the eerily similar murders. VERDICT Based on extensive new research and interviews, this highly readable account sheds new light on the hunt for the Black Dahlia’s murderer.” —Library Journal

“Frankel presents a thorough investigation of the Black Dahlia case, the murder of Elizabeth Short in L.A. in the early days of 1947. Considering police records, new evidence, personal letters...

Available Editions

EDITION	Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN	9798331961503
PRICE	$19.99 (USD)
DURATION	10 Hours, 20 Minutes

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